In many homes are found seating units, such as sofas and chairs, that include no convenient table-like surface for the placement of food and drink, reading and writing material, game boards, and the like. Typically seating units are placed adjacent coffee or end tables which are to provide support surfaces to serve these functions; however, the locations of these surfaces is not particularly convenient for an occupant of the seating unit. For example, if the occupant rests a plate of food or a drinking glass on a coffee table, he must lean forward from a seated position to retrieve it; this is somewhat awkward, particularly with seating units that employ deep, soft cushions. If the occupant wishes to eat from the plate or drink from the glass, he has two options. First, he can lean over the table while eating or drinking, which is even more awkward than simply leaning over the table to retrieve the plate. Second, the occupant can grasp the plate and carefully balance it as it travels with him to the seated position, after which he must support the plate as he eats. Either of these options is unsatisfactory, as the risk of the occupant spilling food or drink onto the table, the underlying floor (which is often carpeted), or the seating unit itself, is significant.
The situation is no better with an end table; the occupant must twist to retrieve the plate or glass from the end table and either consume in this awkward twisted position or balance the plate or glass as it travels and resides over the seating unit. Often the difficulty is exacerbated by the presence of an armrest on the end of the seating unit that the occupant must negotiate.
Further, the typical coffee table provides no surface between occupants seated on either end of a sofa that can serve as a card or game table. Thus occupants of the seating unit utilizing the table for this purpose must twist awkwardly to reach the table.
The underlying cause of these difficulties is the position of the table surface relative to the seating unit. On coffee tables, the table surface is too low and too far forward for easy access to the occupant of a seating unit. On end tables, the table surface is placed beside rather than directly in front of a seated occupant. However, furniture styles dictate that coffee tables provide table surfaces in these locations.
Quite often a seating unit will be accompanied by a footstool, such as an ottoman or hassock. Footstools are, of course, generally placed in front of the seating unit and thereby provide a surface upon which occupants of the seating unit can rest their feet. Footstools can serve additionally as storage receptacles. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 2,812,227 to Hill.
Attempts have been made to provide an ottoman with a table-like surface so that some of the shortcomings described above are alleviated. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,227,112 to Wiseman discloses a stool with a completely removable top cushion. Beneath the top cushion are legs that extend vertically to support an separate auxiliary table surface. U.S. Pat. No. D151,984 to Guertin discloses a cylindrical hassock that splits longitudinally to expose a stationary coffee table stored within. U.S. Pat. No. D151,983 discloses a square hassock having a side wall attached to a coffee table-type surface; the side wall is pulled away from the hassock in drawer-like fashion and draws the table surface from within the hassock into its operable position therebeside. However, none of these footstools can provide a table surface in a suitable position for a seated occupant of an adjacent seating unit.
In view of the foregoing, it is a first object of this invention to provide an ottoman that further provides a table surface suitable for use by a seated occupant of an adjacent seating unit.
It is a second object of this invention to provide a means by which an ottoman can provide such a table surface.